But then he exposes himself as one of those many, many middle aged people who say things like

*I never imagined I'd be the kinda guy who says "kids these days have music that sucks." In fact pretty much ALL AND EVERY aspect of popular culture has suffered under the Bush Administration, but music, especially so.

Quite apart from some strange linkage between popular culture and Bush, compare and contrast this with this article from The Guardian about teen and early 20s and what they're doing with musical culture on MySpace. What Bruce is commenting on is the decline of the star system and the middle ground of mainstream culture. But just as that's happening we're also seeing a huge upsurge in music by and for the people in ever smaller fragmented groups. The kids are becoming completely separated from the record companies. making and listening to music outside the system.

It reminds me of 1976/77 and the rise of punk and independent record labels. But that got absorbed by the mainstream real fast. This time around its mutating too fast to absorb.